Natural Gas

First, Florida Power & Light Co. switched most of its power plants from oil to natural gas. Now, FPL wants to invest in producing natural gas to obtain that fuel more cheaply for its operations. The utility Wednesday asked regulators to approve plans for a small investment in new wells in Oklahoma that would provide some of the natural gas it uses to make electricity. It also asked for guidelines on investing in larger natural-gas production ventures later. Regulators in other states already have given approval for utilities to invest in natural gas production, but Florida has not, FPL spokeswoman Sarah Gatewood said. The Florida Public Service Commission said FPL's request...

Related "Natural Gas" Articles

Building a natural gas pipeline through the Lehigh Valley to New Jersey could help lower natural gas prices a bit for Pennsylvania residents, but don't expect a savings windfall.
It's more likely to help prevent prices from rising.
"It won't make...

The price of electricity for PPL Electric Utilities' default customers will drop slightly next month, the Allentown company announced Thursday.The new "price to compare" for residential customers will be 8.814 cents a kilowatt hour, down from...

While Pennsylvania's northern tier has seen an influx of drilling rigs and natural gas wells, the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom has largely skirted the Lehigh Valley.Until now.PennEast Pipeline Co., a consortium that includes a UGI Corp. subsidiary,...

The Marcellus Shale is growing up, and the growing pains aren't over.After years of cautionary comments that the natural gas drilling boom was in its infancy, the industry is showing signs of moving to a different stage.With more than 8,000 shale wells...

PPL Electric Utilities has plans to build a new electricity transmission network that would span Pennsylvania and branch into New York, Maryland and New Jersey, the utility announced Thursday.
At the heart of the massive undertaking — expected to cost...

Yo! One of coolest things about working the Harrisburg beat is the realization that all aspects of Pennsylvania society comes together under the golden Dome. You see it when you walk past the offices of state representatives and senators who...

Where's Bart Simpson And His Blackboard When You Need It? A coalition of environmental groups to more than a dozen lawmakers -- primarily Republicans -- for their votes on legislation that authorized a new impact fee on Marcellus shale natural...

In 1943, visibility on the streets of Los Angeles dropped to about three blocks as a layer of filth descended from the sky, attacking the eyes, lungs and stomachs of the city's inhabitants.
The culprit: smog.
In 1952, California Institute of...

It's radioactive, its plants can be expensive to build and it scares the bejeebers out of many, but to some, nuclear energy is the future.
That may well be true, but for now, the race to that future has slowed to a cautious crawl as regulators have...

It must be a little bit tough to be Tom Murphy.
By day, the co-director of the Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach and Research crunches numbers and looks at reports coming from the region's booming natural gas industry — all of which show...

Energy affects consumer choices large and small, from a replacement light bulb to the kind of car we drive.
It influences investments businesses make in new equipment and technology. And it creates opportunities for companies that either provide energy...

For years, Michelle and David Olson relied on oil to heat their 2,600-square-foot home on the west end of Allentown at a cost of around $350 per month.
"And it kept going up," Michelle Olson said.
Olson threw a neighborhood party after she...

• Owner: Public
• Founded: 1967
• Sector: Education
• Company description: Northampton Community College serves more than 16,000 students each year in degree and certificate programs, and an additional 21,000 community...

Allentown's Tom Schweyer doesn't worry much about oil prices.
His daily commute to work from Midway Manor to his job as an auditor in downtown Allentown is just six miles round trip. He walks to lunch.
But as a numbers cruncher, he knows the rising...

Now that the Lehigh Valley is in its third year of deregulated electricity, can we finally render a verdict on the matter?
Can we say, one way or the other, whether taking a big chunk of Pennsylvania's electric industry and turning it over to the...

• Owner: Air Products is a public company owned by its shareholders
• Founded: 1940
• Sector: Manufacturing
• Company description: Air Products is an international supplier of industrial gases and performance materials,...

Jim Lett knew his house was leaking money, especially during winter. Of course, he couldn't actually see heat slipping out of wiring conduits, exhaust fans, the attic. But he could feel the pain in his wallet as sure as the draftiness that compelled him...

It may be the fuel of the future, but alternative energy is having plenty of problems with the present.
Paul Copleman fears the government subsidies that make his company's wind turbines affordable may soon disappear. Greg Roth says cheap natural gas has...

The Obama White House's refusal to allow construction of an oil pipeline from Canada through the United States to the Gulf Coast has spurred a bitter political debate with Republicans arguing that Obama is not doing enough to spur energy independence...

U.S. Senator Bob Casey has made no secret of his desire to push gas utilities to speed up the pace of replacing antiquated cast iron natural gas pipelines like the one that exploded in Allentown just over a year ago, killing five people and leveling a...